Defence Minister Asif Says Pakistan Will Defend Saudi Arabia by 'Whatever Means' Against the Houthis

Pakistan's Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif said on September 29 that his country would use "whatever means are available at our disposal" to defend Saudi Arabia against Yemen's Houthi movement, the most direct language any Pakistani official has used since the three-country Makkah Joint Defence Agreement was signed in August. He made the remarks during a visit to Rome, and when pressed on whether Pakistani forces had already taken part in airstrikes against Houthi or Iranian-linked targets inside Yemen, he declined to say either way.

What Asif actually said

"I'm not going into detail, but obviously when I say that we are bound by this arrangement to defend Saudi Arabia, that means whatever means are available at our disposal, they'll be available to Saudi Arabia also," Asif told reporters. He described the Houthis as aggressors, said they had intensified missile and drone attacks on Saudi Arabia, and noted the group has expanded its control along Yemen's Red Sea coast. Pressed further on possible Pakistani involvement in strikes on Houthi or Iranian operators, he repeated that he would not confirm or deny it.

That is a deliberately ambiguous answer, and probably an intentional one: it commits Pakistan to nothing specific while leaving open the possibility that something has already happened.

From "no discussion" to "whatever means"

We reported five days earlier that Pakistan's Foreign Office was drawing a clear line — a chiefs-of-staff meeting to discuss options was happening, but "no military response is currently under discussion," and Islamabad would act "when time comes." That meeting took place in Riyadh on September 25: Field Marshal Asim Munir represented Pakistan alongside Turkiye's General Selcuk Bayraktaroglu and Saudi Arabia's General Fayyadh bin Hamed Al-Ruwaili. The three sides agreed to deepen military and intelligence cooperation and integrate their defensive capabilities under the pact.

Asif's comments four days later mark a shift in tone from that meeting's cautious framing toward something closer to an open-ended commitment, even without a specific announcement of troops, aircraft or a combat role.

The pact and why it is being tested now

The Makkah Joint Defence Agreement was signed on August 7 by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, declaring that an armed attack on any one member is to be treated as an attack on all three. Since then the Houthis have seized the Yemeni port city of Mocha and much of the country's Red Sea coastline from Saudi-backed government forces, while stepping up missile and drone strikes on Saudi territory, including sites near Makkah itself. A Houthi political bureau member has separately warned that Pakistan and Turkiye would face an "iron fist" if they entered the war directly.

Pakistan's caution has historical roots: in 2015, Parliament voted to stay out of the Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen despite Riyadh's request for troops, a decision that strained the relationship for years. Turkiye's Parliament, meanwhile, has not yet ratified the Makkah pact itself, with its Speaker saying that will not happen before the assembly returns from recess on October 1.

The wider picture

Asif's statement lands as Pakistan is already managing an active military confrontation on a separate front — air and ground clashes along its border with Afghanistan — and as Islamabad negotiates its own side deals with Iran to keep LNG cargoes moving through the Strait of Hormuz even as the wider US-Iran war continues. Committing "whatever means are available" to a Gulf ally while trying to keep a working channel open to Tehran is not a contradiction Islamabad has had to explain in public yet — but the ambiguity in Asif's own answer suggests it may not be able to avoid that question much longer.

No timeline has been given for when, or whether, that ambiguity will be resolved. The Riyadh chiefs-of-staff talks were described as focused on logistics, intelligence-sharing and rules of engagement — the practical scaffolding for a decision that Pakistan's government has still not said it has made.

Build Better Pakistan's Security Desk is tracking Pakistan's role under the Makkah Joint Defence Agreement as the Houthi conflict escalates.